...and Rage Against Machines
Mar. 21st, 2005 11:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robotnik2004More goodies from the Closet of Christmases Past. I don't expect these things to get the same visceral reaction from everyone as the gaming stuff, but they're a fun nostalgia trip for me personally. And if you happen to see anything that intrigues you, speak up.
So, back before the internet, there were these things called "zines." They were indy and punk and emo and cool. Much like myself. Actually they were contemporaneous with the internet, but from before I cared about the internet. In fact, the first page of my own first zine says something like, "It could be worse: I could be starting a web site!" Little did I know. You'd send them out through the mail, and end up getting all these funny letters and postcards and zines and mini-comics in trade from random people all over the country. Like an LJ Friends list, but much slower, and considerably more mysterious.
I could do a whole post on each one of these, I'm realizing. Tom Hart's many tiny masterpieces. The ingenious Infiltration. The great R2D2 is an Indie Rocker, by local boy Jef Czekaj, who invited me to stalk the cast of Real World: Boston with him. The utterly wretched Luhey's Doggie Doodles. The mysterious but beautiful Phooka, which combined rules for cross-country croquet etiquette with advice on battling the Unseelie (no lie). And yes, that is the August 18, 1979 issue of TV Guide.
My own zines are not shown—I think I will do a post on them at some point. But what else do we have here? More Tom Hart, more Phooka. A Mexican fotonovella with nudie pictures. Oh yeah, and Trail of Tears Junior High. That is perhaps the grimmest, most hideously accurate recollection of early 1980s junior high one could ever imagine. )Shudder...( And Guinea Pig Zero will give you the shudders too, in a different way. It was a zine by, for and about slackers who earn a living by volunteering for drug and medical experiments. Some great stories; I always thought somebody should turn it into a movie. And Spoon-eye! Which contains the rules for a great (pirate-themed!) card game that I highly recommend. I started corresponding with the very funny, very creative guy who wrote that, and we got part way through planning to write a D&D nostalgia zine (called, get this, 20'x20' Room) before petering out. Years later I learned he was a college friend of my wife's; of course I had not yet met her when he and I were swapping letters. (Jesse's also responsible for the following bit of dada-ist brilliance, among others: Peanuts Strips That, With The Punchlines Removed, Become Profoundly Disquieting Mediations Upon The Human Condition.) (Edit: Hee. I also recommend the comparison of Over- and Under-Represented Human Experiences In Western Popular Song.)
Very random selection of comix, I know. That's because I already picked them clean and lent/gave everything else to my brother J. But the last chunk of Planetary is there, plus Seaguy, and Vimanarama, which Jere was asking about. (Also: does anyone out there read Y the Last Man?)
Random selection of geek-friendly paperbacks, too. I'm certainly not going to do this with all the books I'm offloading, but there's a few rare birds in that pile so I thought I'd see if anyone was interested.
There was an Onion article once that went something like, "Family and Friends of Gen-X Suicide Victim Have No Idea What to Do with His Ironic Collection of Cereal Boxes." It even mentioned Quisp. I don't wanna be that guy, so I better unload this stuff. Hail to thee, King Vitaman, you look like Leslie Nielsen and your crown is made of spoons. I got that one in Muncie, too, so it's kind of a Dungeon Majesty collectible.
The metal fan in the bottom of the frame is going to go to Goodwill if nobody wants it. It's a little too noisy for me, but man, it's got a fucking airplane engine in it. I have never found a modern fan that blows like that baby. Plus it has a sharp metal blade and barely a token grating to protect your fingers from turning into sausage. Fun for the whole family!
And finally, I'm at a total loss as to what to do with all of this:
Any ideas?
So, back before the internet, there were these things called "zines." They were indy and punk and emo and cool. Much like myself. Actually they were contemporaneous with the internet, but from before I cared about the internet. In fact, the first page of my own first zine says something like, "It could be worse: I could be starting a web site!" Little did I know. You'd send them out through the mail, and end up getting all these funny letters and postcards and zines and mini-comics in trade from random people all over the country. Like an LJ Friends list, but much slower, and considerably more mysterious.
I could do a whole post on each one of these, I'm realizing. Tom Hart's many tiny masterpieces. The ingenious Infiltration. The great R2D2 is an Indie Rocker, by local boy Jef Czekaj, who invited me to stalk the cast of Real World: Boston with him. The utterly wretched Luhey's Doggie Doodles. The mysterious but beautiful Phooka, which combined rules for cross-country croquet etiquette with advice on battling the Unseelie (no lie). And yes, that is the August 18, 1979 issue of TV Guide.
My own zines are not shown—I think I will do a post on them at some point. But what else do we have here? More Tom Hart, more Phooka. A Mexican fotonovella with nudie pictures. Oh yeah, and Trail of Tears Junior High. That is perhaps the grimmest, most hideously accurate recollection of early 1980s junior high one could ever imagine. )Shudder...( And Guinea Pig Zero will give you the shudders too, in a different way. It was a zine by, for and about slackers who earn a living by volunteering for drug and medical experiments. Some great stories; I always thought somebody should turn it into a movie. And Spoon-eye! Which contains the rules for a great (pirate-themed!) card game that I highly recommend. I started corresponding with the very funny, very creative guy who wrote that, and we got part way through planning to write a D&D nostalgia zine (called, get this, 20'x20' Room) before petering out. Years later I learned he was a college friend of my wife's; of course I had not yet met her when he and I were swapping letters. (Jesse's also responsible for the following bit of dada-ist brilliance, among others: Peanuts Strips That, With The Punchlines Removed, Become Profoundly Disquieting Mediations Upon The Human Condition.) (Edit: Hee. I also recommend the comparison of Over- and Under-Represented Human Experiences In Western Popular Song.)
Very random selection of comix, I know. That's because I already picked them clean and lent/gave everything else to my brother J. But the last chunk of Planetary is there, plus Seaguy, and Vimanarama, which Jere was asking about. (Also: does anyone out there read Y the Last Man?)
Random selection of geek-friendly paperbacks, too. I'm certainly not going to do this with all the books I'm offloading, but there's a few rare birds in that pile so I thought I'd see if anyone was interested.
There was an Onion article once that went something like, "Family and Friends of Gen-X Suicide Victim Have No Idea What to Do with His Ironic Collection of Cereal Boxes." It even mentioned Quisp. I don't wanna be that guy, so I better unload this stuff. Hail to thee, King Vitaman, you look like Leslie Nielsen and your crown is made of spoons. I got that one in Muncie, too, so it's kind of a Dungeon Majesty collectible.
The metal fan in the bottom of the frame is going to go to Goodwill if nobody wants it. It's a little too noisy for me, but man, it's got a fucking airplane engine in it. I have never found a modern fan that blows like that baby. Plus it has a sharp metal blade and barely a token grating to protect your fingers from turning into sausage. Fun for the whole family!
And finally, I'm at a total loss as to what to do with all of this:
Any ideas?
